Haeusee



(No Models) W. VON OBCHELHAEUSER.

HIGH PRESSURE GAS ENGINE.

Patented Jan. 4,1898.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

4WILHELM VON OECHELHAEUSER, OE DESSAU, GRMANY. u

HIGH-PRESSURE GAS-ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 596,613, dated January 4, 1898.

Application filed April 20,1897. Serial No. 633,050. (No model.) Patented in Belgium November 7, 1896, No. 124,436, and in- IE'rance November 7, 1896, No. 261,086. i

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILHELM voN OECHEL- HAEUsER', a subject of the German Emperor, and a resident of Dessau, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in High-Pressure Gas-Engines, (for which Letters Patent have been obtained in Belgium, No'. 124,436, dated November 7, 1896, and in France, No. 261,086, dated November 7, 1896 g) and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or iigures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention has relation to high-pressure gas-engines; and it has for its object certain improvements on the engine for which I have obtained Letters Patent of the United States dated November 14, 1893, No. 508,833, and whereby the construction and operation of the engine are materially simplified, the importance and value of said improvements increasing in proportion to the increase in the dimensions or capacity of the engine, as will be clearly seen from what follows.

In my patent referred to I have shown and described a high-pressure gas-engine having reciprocally-movable pistons, the vworking cylinder for which has peripheral exhaustports at one end, like air-inlet portsat the opposite end, and gas-inlet ports at a point substantially intermediate of the limits of the inward stroke of said pistons, which are thus adapted to control the exhaust as well as the air-inlet ports.

In this, as well as in all other engines in which the gas is introduced into the cylinder after the charge of air is either partly or wholly compressed, a high-pressure gas-pump is indispensable, requiring great power `to compress the gas to a degree greater than the pressure within the compression'chamber or space in order that it may be forced into such chamber. Where, however, such an engine is to be operated by so-called poor gases as, forinstance, blast and other furnace gases, where such are available, whereby the cost of running the engine is very greatly reduced, and which gases have only about onefifth the heat value of the richer illuminating-gas-the power required for compression, as well as the capacity of the compressor, must be correspondingly increased, in that five times as great a volume of gas will be required to produce the same effect, the ratio of the rich and poor gas being as one to iive, or substantially so. Inasmuch as the degree of compression of the gas must be sufficiently greater than the pressure in the working cylinder at the time of admission of the gas, the

power required is very great and increases in l proportion to the increase in the capacity or power of the engine, and this power is `practically wasted, as well as the increased cost of the pump. The present invention is designed to overcome these disadvantages, and this I attain by a novel arrangement for the supply of gas and air to the working cylinder, so that such gas can be admitted to the cylinder under a comparatively low pressure-say from about one-third to one-sixth of an atmosphere-the power for the compressor being correspondingly reduced, so that a low-pressure pump can be employed and so that poor gases, such as referred to, can be economically employed as a motive fluid for high-pressure gas-engines, which' has not only the advantage of reducing the cost of running the engine, but also of reducing the space required and the weight of parts and the cost Vof construction and installation.

air is admixed with the gas before its admission to the cylinder such admission will take place at the beginning of the compressing movement of the pistons. fer also to admit air underpressure to the working cylinder between the pistons as soon as the exhaust-ports begin to be uncovered In all cases I prefor the purpose of purging the cylinder of the products of combustion and cooling said cylinder, as described in my patent referred to. Thus, for instance, separate air and gas ports may be arranged proximate to each other at one end of the cylinder, so that when the pistons are about to reach the limit of their outward or positive stroke under the expansive forces of a charge of combustible gas the exhaust-ports will be uncovered by one of the pistons and the air-inlet ports,v and afterward the gas-inlet ports, by the other piston; or the position of the air and gas inlet ports may be reversed, so that the one piston as it reaches the limit of its outward stroke will rst uncover the gas-inlet ports and then the air-inlet ports, in which case there will be a controlling-valve in the passage leading from the source of gas-supply to said gas-inlet ports controlled by a moving element of lthe engine in a well-known manner and timed in its operation to open said passage after the air-inlet ports have again been closed or are about to be closed by the piston. Finally the air and gas may be admitted to the working cylinder through the same sets of ports, in which case a valve arrangement suoli as referred to will also be required and timed to open'the passage leading from the source of gas-supply after air has been admitted to the cylinder to purge the same of the products of combustion; but that my invention may be better understood I will describe the same in detail, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a horizontal sectional View of so much of a gas-engine as will be necessary to the understanding of my invention, in which separate air and gas inlet ports proximate to each other are provided near one end of the cylinder, the admission Vof, the liuids being controlled byone of the pistons, thereby dispensing with controlling-valves.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the outerl end of the Working cylinder, illustrating means whereby both iiuids arekadmitted to the cylinder through a single set of ports, Fig. 3 being a section on line a h of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, wherein the location of the inlet-portsfor the two liuids is reversed relatively to the location of such ports as shown in- Fig. l.

The general construction of the engine is or may be as or substantially as described in my prior patent, and, referringto Fig. l, A indicates the working cylinder; B and C, the reciprocally movable pistons; D, the crank-shaft, to which the pistons are connected, the piston B by connecting-rod E and the piston O through a cross-head L, connecting-rods H, slide-blocks F' F2,'and connecting-rods E' E2, said crank-shaft carrying belt or fly wheels O, or both, and l? is a lowpressure pump, which has its piston or plunger rod conveniently connected with the piston C. Near the pump end the working cylinder is provided with exhaust-ports 2 and near its opposite end with two sets of air and gas ports l and l, respectively.

In working with furnace-gases the pump P draws such from the source of supply and compresses them to from about three-tenths to six-tenths atmospheres instead of ten to twelve atmospheres, as is necessary when illuminating-gas is employed, and, if desired, said furnacegases may be mixed with the quantity of air necessary to their combustion before being admitted to the working cylinder, which may be advantageously effected in the pump itself. The air. necessary to purge the cylinder of the products of combustion may in this case be taken from the air-blast conduits, as air under the required pressure is always available where blast-furnaces-are worked. In other cases the air can be taken fromY any desired source of compressed-air supply. On. the other hand, if

furnace-gases under the described pressure are available the pump may be dispensed with or used as an air-compressing pump where another source of compressed-air supply is not available. As stated, the air and gas are supplied to the cylinder at the low pressure of from three-tenths to six-tenths atmospheres, the high degree of compression of the combustible compound necessary to the working of high-pressure engines-say from ten to twelve atmospheres-being effected within the cylinder by the pistons.

As air under pressure is admitted to the working cylinder as soon as the piston C begins to open 4or immediately after it has opened the exhaust-ports 2, the cylinder is eifectually freed from all products of combustion of `a previous charge of combustible gas, while the purging of the cylinder and the charging of the same with gas are separately effected at different times. The piston B at the end of its outward stroke first uncovers the air-ports l and then the gas-ports l, the former being of course connected with the source of air-supply and the latter with the source of gas-supply-the pump P, for instance-while the exhaust-ports 2 are so lo- TOO IIO

cated relatively to the travel of the piston C Y that the latter will uncover said ports immediately after the end of the expansion period. As the pistons again move inwardly the gasports la are rst closed and then the air-ports l. Consequently after the combustion and expansion of a charge the working space in the cylinder .A is first cleared of the products of combustion by the admission thereto, through piston B, of air, and consequently cooled, while said piston B immediately before it reaches its outward dead-point uncovers the gas-ports la to admit a charge of` gas or a charge of a mixture of gas and air, as the case maybe, which is then compressed by the farther inward movement of the piston, whereby the exhaust-ports as well as the gas and air inlet ports are closed, the compressed combustible gas being ignited in any well-known manner at or about at the time when both pistons are on their .inner deadpoints.

As hereinbefore stated, the air and gas may be admitted to the Working cylinder through one and the same set of ports, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, in which vcase the connections G and L with the sources of gas and air supply communicate with a passage K, that leads to said ports, a valve fu, operated from a moving element of the engine in a well-known manner, being interposed between the pas,- sages K and G, and so timed in its operation that the gas Will be admitted to the working cylinder after air has been admitted thereto, or, as stated, the location of the separate air and gas ports l la may be reversed relatively to the location of the said ports, as shown in Fig. l, in that in the outward movement of the piston B the gas-ports la will first be uncovered, and in this case a controlling-valve c in the passage leading from the gas-ports to the source of gas-supply will also be n-ecessary, as shown in Fig. Il.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination with the working cylinder of a gas-engine having internal peripheral exhaust-ports near one end and like air and gas inlet "ports near its opposite end; of reciprocally-movable pistons one of which controls the exhaust-ports and the other the air and gas inlet ports to first admit air to the cylinder between the pistons and then gas before said air is compressed, for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination with the working cylinder of a gas-engine havinginternal peripheral exhaust-ports near one end and like air and gas inlet ports near its opposite end; of reciprocally-movable pistons one of which controls the exhaust-ports and the other the air and gas inlet ports, the last-named ports so arranged that their controlling-piston in its outward movement will rst uncover the air-ports and then the gas-portsand close the same in reverse order on its return stroke, for the purpose set forth.

3. In a gas-engine the combination with the working cylinder, its reciprocally-movable pistons and exhaust; of means controlled by one of said pistons for admitting air to said cylinder between the pistons while the exhaust is open and after its closure, and for admitting gas to said air before the latter is compressed by the pistons, for the purpose set forth.

4. The combination With the working cylinder of-a gas-engine having in its inner periphery near one end exhaust-ports, and near its opposite end separate proximate gas and air inlet ports, o'f reciprocally-movable pistons adapted to controlv the exhaust and airinlet ports, and a valve inthe connection between the gas-ports and source of gas-supply adapted to open when one of the pistons is about to close or has closed the said air-inlet ports, for the purpose set forth.

5. The combination with the working cylinder of a gas-engine having in its inner periphery near one end exhaust-ports and near its opposite end but one set of ports for air and gas inlet, of reciprocally-movable pistons adapted to control the exhaust and airinlet ports and a valve in the connection of the latterV ports and source of gas-supply adapted to admit the gas to the working cylinder after air has been admitted thereto, for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILHELllI VON OECHELHAEUSER.

Witnesses:

FRIEDRICH GEIER. FRANZ SCHFER, 

